Life in the green fast lane

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For the Penguins

For me, a big part of the reason I bought the Roadster and write this blog is for the environment. I have been an environmentalist since I was a child. I have always loved nature and still remember the spare the air days when gym class was canceled. I try to pollute the planet as little as possible. For the last four years, I have been carbon neutral. Although it is much better to not generate green house gases or pollution, I have offset my impact through Climate Care, a UK based company.

I was very fortunate this December to spend a long vacation in Antarctica and nearby places. The naturalists on our ship pointed out many cases where global warming has changed the climate in Antarctica. Glaciers have retreated, parts of ice shelves have collapsed into the sea, and less sea ice forming on the surface of the water. The ice in and around Antarctica is a protective cooling layer; without the ice, the earth absorbs more heat from the atmosphere.

On the Antarctic Peninsula in the last few years, the numbers of Adelie penguins has dropped dramatically, and some colonies have disappeared. They depend upon sea ice as a feeding platform in the winter; similar to the polar bears near the North Pole. Near the Palmer research station, the number of days per year the sea ice exists has declined by almost 3 months in the past 35 years. The loss of sea ice also creates more open water, which results in more snow on the peninsula, and the Adelie penguins have challenges incubating their eggs in the snow or slush.